Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed on Thursday to push for a vote next week on a measure that would legalize abortion nationwide after the leak of a draft Supreme Court decision overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision was published on Monday evening.
The vote will make it “crystal clear” which side of the abortion debate the GOP is on, said the powerful Democrat from New York.
But Republicans have said they will use their filibuster power to block the bill, essentially dooming it to failure.
“The Republican party will either side with the extremists who want to ban abortion or side with women with families and the vast majority of Americans,” said Schumer, referring to polls showing most Americans support abortion rights.
“Next week’s vote will be one of the most important we ever take,” Schumer added.
Schumer set the debate on the measure for Monday, a schedule that would likely lead to a vote on Wednesday that will mostly be symbolic and reveal the limits of the 50-50 Democratic Senate majority.
He insisted that bringing a bill to the Senate floor, after a similar measure failed in February, is “not an abstract exercise.” The House passed legislation protecting abortion rights in September.
However, Schumer and other Democrat leaders, who lack the support needed to change Senate rules and pass an abortion bill on a majority vote, have signaled they will take the fight to voters during the campaign leading to the November midterm elections.
Republicans plan to use their filibuster power to block the bill, meaning 60 votes would be needed to pass it. The bill will likely fall far short of that even if pro-choice Republicans like Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, back it.
The only other way of pushing the bill through would be for all 50 Democrats to vote to scrap the filibuster.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., two moderate Democrats, have repeatedly declared they will not agree to that move, leaving little hope for passage.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., reminded her colleagues how important it was for Democrats and Republicans to face voters on whichever decision they decide to make next week.
“It’s about pressing everyone at every level of government, federal, state and local, to acknowledge what it will mean if women have to resort to back-alley abortions,” Warren said.
Republicans have sought to focus on the rare nature of the Supreme Court draft ruling leak to deflect attention from the implications of the final ruling in a case from Mississippi expected in June or July.
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